Habetrot

Sheep Cyclone

 

 

 

 

Knitting in the Garden

 

(Click image for full size)

"Knitting in the Garden" was painted in 1932 by Peter Mork Monsted (1859-1941), a prominent Danish landscape painter of his day.  

Here we have a knitter and her two (oddly well-behaved) friends enjoying the full flower of of a summer day.

 

Mountain, Moor and Loch

 

 

This postcard of Scottish Blackface Sheep in the Highlands of Scotland was mailed in 1906--106 years ago.

And here's a modern look at some of their descendants, from the breed association webpage linked above.  

 (Click images for big.) 

 It's nice to know some things don't change a lot through time.

Best Wishes to All for the Holidays!

 

 

A spinner from Chinchero, Peru, spinning Christmas cheer on her bottom whorl spindle.

Aesop's Fable: The Shepherd and His Sheep

 

(Click for bigness)

A Shepherd driving his Sheep to a wood saw an oak 

of unusual size full of acorns, and spreading his 

cloak under the branches, he climbed up into the 

tree and shook them down.  The Sheep eating the 

acorns inadvertently frayed and tore the cloak.  

When the Shepherd came down and saw what was 

done, he said, "O you most ungrateful creatures! 

You provide wool to make garments for all other men, 

but you destroy the clothes of him who feeds you."

Silly shepherd.  
The illustration is from a Greek manuscript dating to 
around 1480.  
Here's the full page: 

Zuiderzee Spinner

 

(Click for Big)

This image of a family of Zuiderzee (a historic region of the Netherlands and now part of North Holland) is a hand-colored print from a steel engraving drawn and engraved by Rouargue Frères in 1857 in Paris.

Sunlight floods through the leaded glass window as the child plays in the background, the man concentrates on lighting his clay pipe, and the woman, keeping an eye on the artist, industriously spins flax on her flat-rim treadle wheel. All is not labor for the dear lady, however--note the glass of a little something close by on the sideboard to her left. Some things do not change.  She looks like good company, doesn't she?

I like how the woman has tilted her stool forward on the front legs to reach the wheel more comfortably and how the wheel sits on a small patterned rug to keep it from skidding across the floor. I also note the simple distaff with the line flax tied in a knot at the top. Although it is tempting to put this down to a lack of accuracy on the part of the artist, I have seen a few other images of spinners with the flax tied in just this way.